Sling Blade

Rated R • 135 minutes

Billy Bob Thornton became a star when he wrote, directed and starred in this acclaimed drama as Karl Childers, a mildly retarded prisoner who is released from a mental institution after spending most of his life there following his murder of his abusive mother and her lover. Karl starts life over in a small Southern town, where he befriends a sensitive boy and his mother, but the mother's violent boyfriend stirs up old impulses in Karl that could lead to tragedy. Lucas Black, John Ritter, Dwight Yoakam and Robert Duvall costar.